Documentation/ReleaseNotes/NuttX-6.24

NuttX-6.24
----------

The 91st release of NuttX, Version 6.24, was made on December 20, 2012,
and is available for download from the SourceForge website. Note
that release consists of two tarballs: nuttx-6.24.tar.gz and
apps-6.24.tar.gz. Both may be needed (see the top-level nuttx/README.txt
file for build information).

This release corresponds with SVN release number: r5447

Note that all SVN information has been stripped from the tarballs. If you
need the SVN configuration information, you should check out directly from
SVN. Revision r5447 should equivalent to release 6.24 of NuttX 6.24:

svn checkout -r5447 svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/nuttx/code/trunk nuttx-code

Or (HTTP):

svn checkout -r5447 http://svn.code.sf.net/p/nuttx/code/trunk nuttx-code

Additional new features and extended functionality:

* RTOS:

- Implemented the POSIX pause() function (still has some compiance
issues).
- Tasking logic is extended to support the notion of address
environments. An address environment is the key notion underlying
"process" vs. tasks. If tasks are created with address environments
(by binfmt), the OS will propagate that environment to child threads
and will destroy the address environment when the "process" exists.
- If support for the PATH variable is enabled, the OS start up logic
will create an initial environment containing the default PATH
setting (CONFIG_PATH_INITIAL). This initial PATH will then be
inherited by all tasks.

* Binfmt

- The NuttX binary loaders have been updated to support the PATH
environment variable. Now, if the PATH is properly defined, programs
can be executed from mass storage using only the file name. This
feature is added to support more standard behavior (eventually, NSH
will support execution of programs in file systems by just entering
the file name, perhaps in 6.25?).
- The NXFLAT and ELF binary loaders have been extended to create
address environments for any new tasks executed from the file system.
This feature requires that the architecture support a memory management
unit (MMU) and the address environment interfaces declared in
include/nuttx/arch.h (currently, this is only supported by the z180).

* Drivers: LCD driver for the Univision UG-2864AMBAG01 OLED

* STM32: Support for STM32F100 high density chips contributed by Freddie
Chopin.

* STM32 Drivers: Added optional RS-485 direction bit control (from
Freddie Chopin).

* STM32 Boards:

- Support for generic STM32F100RC board contributed by Freddie Chopin.
- stm32f4discovery/nxlines: STM32F4Discovery support for the
UG-2864AMBAG01 OLED.
- stm32f4discovery/winbuild: A version of the NuttX OS test
configured to build natively on Windows.
- stm32f4discovery/elf: Now uses the PATH variable to find ELF
executables.
- configs/cloudctrl: Added for Darcy Gong's CloudController board

* PIC32 Boards: Update the Mirtool configuration for Release 2 of the
Mirtoo module.

* Calypso: Add Calypso keypad driver. From Denis Cariki.

* ZiLOG:

- Add support for the z180 chip family and, specifically, for
the P112 retro hardware (see http://p112.feedle.net/).
- All ZiLOG configurations updated to use the current ZDS-II
and/or SDCC toolchains.

* Graphics:

- Add a semaphore handshake so that operations on buffers from
the NXMU client will be blocked until the NX server operates on the
buffer data (from Petteri Aimonen).
- nxtk_subwindowmove() and nxtk_getwindow(): Improvements to clipping
logic from Petteri Aimonen.

* C Library: lib/ sub-directory renamed libc/ (there is a new lib/ sub-
directory that is used to hold all archives).

* C++: Exception stubs from Petteri Aimonen.

* Applications:

- Add NSH hexdump command to dump the contents of a file (or character
device) to the console (contributed by Petteri Aimonen).
- Extend the NSH ifconfig command plus various DHCPC improvements
(from Darcy Gong).

* apps/examples:

- ostest: Replace large tables with algorithmic prime number
generation. This allows the roundrobin test to run on platforms
with minimal SRAM (Freddie Chopin).
- keypadtest: A new keypad test example contributed by Denis Carikli.
- elf and nxflat: If CONFIG_BINFMT_EXEPATH is defined, these examples
will now use a relative path to the program and expect the binfmt/
logic to find the absolute path to the program using the PATH
variable.

* Build system:

- New top-level Makefiles: Makefile.unix and Makefile.win (along with
numerous changes to other make-related files). This adds basic
support for building NuttX natively under Windows from a CMD.exe
window (rather than in a POSIX-like environment). This build: (1)
Uses all Windows style paths, (2) Uses primarily Windows batch
commands from cmd.exe, with (3) a few extensions from GNUWin32.

This capability should still be considered a work in progress
because: (1) it has not been verified on all targets and tools,
and (2) still lacks some of the creature-comforts of the more
mature environments (like a function configure.sh script and
'make menuconfig' support).

- Example Windows native builds for STM32F4Discovery, eZ80, z16f, z8,
Z80, and Z180.
- Several configurations have been converted to work the kconfig-
frontends mconf configuration tool: stm32f4discovery/nxlines, and
all eZ80, z16f, z8, Z80, and Z180 configurations.
- Architectures now include a common Toolchain.defs file that can be
used to manage toolchains in a more configurable way (most of this
contributed by Mike Smith).

* Build tools:

- Renamed tools/winlink.sh to tools/copydir.sh.
- Several new tools/scripts to support the Windows native build:
tools/mkdeps.bat, tools/mkdeps.c, tools/link.bat, unlink.bat, and
copydir.bat.
- tools/incdir.sh and incdir.bat now support an -s option to generate
system header file paths.
- tools/b16.c: Fixed precision math conversion utility.

Bugfixes (see the change log for details). Some of these are very important
(marked *critical*):

* RTOS: Fix some backward conditional compilation in the work queue
logic (Freddie Chopin).

* File System: Uninitialized variable caused assertions (from Lorenz
Meier).

* Drivers: Partial fix for STM32 OTGFS device drivers and fix for short,
unaligned writes in the flash translation layer (drivers/mtd/ftl.c),
both from Petteri Aimonen.

* STM32 Drivers:

- Qencoder driver and TIM3 driver fixes from Ryan Sundberg.
- Fix timeout delay calculation in the STM32 OTG FS host driver.

* LPC17xx Drivers: Resources not being properly released when I2C
driver is un-initialized.

* Graphics:

- Fix logic when the mouse drags outside of the window; fix
another "blocked message" handling case (both from Petteri Aimonen).
- nxtk_filltrapwindow(): Correct an offset problem (also from Peterri
Aimonen).
- nxglib_splitline(): Correct the "fat flat line" bug.

* C Library:

- nrand() changes to prevent coefficients from becoming zero which
would "lock up" the random number generate.
- Add rounding functions to the math library (contributed by Petteri
Aimonen).

* Build system: Changes to MIN definitions in all limit.h header files
to avoid integer overflows. For example from (-128) to (-127 - 1)
(from Petteri Aimonen).

* Applications: Modbus fixes from Freddie Chopin.

As well as other, less critical bugs (see the ChangeLog for details)